Arrived in France, Halfway to Nicola

We arrived in Paris after a smooth, uneventful and ontime flight. Getting thru the disorganized airport was a different story. Took awhile to get bags, then even longer to get thru the mass of people to escape the terminal.
The car pick-up went smoothly and it was nice to start with a full tank of diesel fuel.
We put the GPS coordinates of our hotel near Millau France into the car and followed the instructions. At one point the system tried to add 100+ Km and on hour to our trip. It gave some warning about a road being closed and wanted to know if we wanted to reroute to bypass that problem. When I answered 'yes' the extra time and distance were added.  We put the coordinates in again and this time said we would take our chances with what turned out to be a nonexistent road closure.
We drove South and got to the Millau Viaduct about 6 PM.  It is one impressive structure. We had to stop for an hour nap about half way thru the 600+ KM trip or the driver would have fallen asleep. We had an okay dinner in the restaurant next to our hotel and were able to talk with one member of the staff who want to practice his English. The staff earlier had complimented Beth on her French.
Tomorrow it is another long drive along the French Riviera coast, then around the corner to Nicola Italy. The Cannes Film Festival is in progress so hopefully Beth does not see any 'stars' who we would have to stop and watch. I just hope the traffic is not horrible, since we need to get to Nicola before dark so we can relearn our way from the parking lot to the house.
More entries and pictures to follow, when we have access to wifi.

Nearly ready for our trip to Europe

We have been busy getting our house 'staged' to sell.  And at the same time we are preparing for our upcoming trip to Europe.  We will arrive in Paris the morning of the 14th and pick up our Renault and head for Nicola Ortonovo Italy via the South of France. We spend the first night near the Millau Viaduct. The next day we will drive thru the French Riviera on the way to Italy.  We will be staying in the same hill-town villa that we stayed in 2011.  We just viewed some of the videos that we took then to review the route to the base of the road up to the town.  We have plans to stay a couple nights in Vicenza near Venice to spend a full day or two in Venice.  The Giro d'Italia bike tour comes thru that area so we may see them at the end of one stage or the start of the next days stage.  We have made reservations in Lauterbrunnen Switzerland for two nights on our way back to Paris to catch our ride home.  We have visited this part of Switzerland a number of times and just love the area.  We will not have wifi in our house in Italy so posts may be few.